De La Soul’s Trugoy The Dove was a true musical disruptor who broke the hip-hop mould
Subject
De La Soul; Trugoy The Dove; David Jude Jolicoeur
Description
David Jude Jolicoeur (better known as Trugoy The Dove and Plug 2), who has died at the age of 54, was a music disruptor who changed the sound and look of rap and hip-hop in the late 80s and 90s.
I first heard his voice on DJ John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show in 1988. It was on De La Soul’s debut single Plug Tunin’ (Are You Ready For This). Like many teenagers back then, my finger was ready on the pause button to record any new hip-hop music from radio shows.
Plug Tunin’ featured a “new style of speak”, which is to say a new way of creating rap. You can hear it over the song’s concise samples of The Invitations, snippets of James Brown, Manzel and even Billy Joel.
In the lyrics, Trugoy and his bandmate Posdnous brought a new style, pattern and cadence to rap. The intro-verse-break-verse-outro song pattern that had become convention was disputed and a conversational approach to lyric delivery, with space for reflection, was built into De La’s song structures.
Creator
Associate Lecturer, School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth
Source
Publisher
theconversation.com
File
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